Evidence of meeting #17 for Declaration of Emergency in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was emergencies.
A video is available from Parliament.
D/Chief Patricia Ferguson
That was the RCMP, the OPP and the Ottawa Police Service. We had other players who were working on separate components of the plan, the public order plan and some of the other traffic and MTO plans.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
In that planning stage, what would be the time frame it took to put that plan into place?
D/Chief Patricia Ferguson
There were several iterations. We were trying to evolve with the situation that was unfolding on our streets and trying to determine what powers we would have and what we could leverage, and resources, as you've probably heard, were a major barrier for us.
In the time that it took for members to arrive, the SOW plan was working solidly to establish how many officers we were going to need and in what capacity we were going to be deploying them.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
Thank you.
When the Emergencies Act was invoked, how were those tools then worked into the initial plan?
D/Chief Patricia Ferguson
I think our plan was fairly solid prior to the act being invoked. What it allowed us to do was to really allow officers on the ground decision-making powers instead of having to look at it on a one-on-one and case-by-case basis. That exclusion zone allowed our officers to be able to act confidently in preventing people from entering and reducing the footprint by not allowing anybody further to come in.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
When the operation took place, Chief Bell, were you in charge for the OPS side?
I'm just trying to figure out who played what role.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
As of the 15th, I became interim chief, and the operation was starting to be executed on the 17th.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
When the Emergencies Act was announced and you started.... I mean, I was watching it. It was clear that you were going to make a move in the next day or two or three.
What is your assessment of the impact on those who stayed and those who went? How did the invocation of the act affect those who chose to leave? Was it coincidental, or did the act itself, in your view...? I mean, some of them decided to move as a result of it.
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
In my assessment, I don't think it's straight from one point to another. I think that, as we went along, the Emergencies Act gave us some of the basis of the plan we executed. As we began to execute the plan and as components like the financial restraint of bank accounts came into effect, we started to see people move. We've heard through testimony that people identified that they now knew it was over, and they moved.
I don't think the Emergencies Act definitely moved people right away, but it was a key component that ultimately had some people leave the area before there was police intervention.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
From the time the act was announced until you moved on the operation—I commend all agencies on the operation on that particular day—can you tell me how much the crowd had shrunk?
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
I wouldn't have an accurate number of how much the crowd had shrunk. I can tell you that the vehicle footprint did not shrink during that point. It was very static at that point. We were coming into a weekend, and it didn't allow it to grow like it had on every other weekend.
The Joint Chair Hon. Gwen Boniface
I think I'm getting waved that my time is up.
Thank you, Mr. Green.
We'll now move to Senator Carignan. You have five minutes.
Claude Carignan Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
Thank you, Madam Chair.
My question is about the exclusion zone.
In your opinion, it was the Emergencies Act that made this exclusion zone possible. Have I got that right?
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
What I indicated is that it created a very stable legal framework for us to have an expanded exclusionary zone. There were provisions being put in that would have, on a case-by-case, corner-by-corner basis, leveraged common law, which hadn't traditionally been leveraged for that reason, to create the ability for officers to make determinations to exclude people or vehicles from entering an area.
What the Emergencies Act did was to give us a very stable legal framework.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
There is already a provincial emergency measures act. Mayor Watson had declared a state of emergency. He told us last week that his decree in relation to emergency measures was symbolic, as there was no real power associated with it.
In your opinion, could Mayor Watson's decree of emergency measures have allowed him to establish an exclusion zone?
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
No. As Mayor Watson indicated, there are limited abilities or powers or authorities under a municipality that is declaring a state of emergency. They are predominately around procurement, and they would not have given us any legal authority to create an exclusion zone in the way that one was created through the Emergencies Act.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
In your opinion, Mayor Watson's decree did not allow for an exclusion zone.
Did you hold any legal consultations in this regard?
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
No. It's just my imperfect knowledge of what a municipality is allowed to do as they declare an emergency.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
All right.
Did you know that the mayor's decree could also allow him to requisition equipment or force people to provide it, including tow trucks?
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
You said that you had looked at several options in relation to tow trucks. Yet you didn't give any details about them.
What options did you look at?
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
There were different options that we looked at. One of them was accessing tow vehicles through private companies. One of them was looking to amass a number of municipally held or government-held tow vehicles. That didn't prove to be fruitful for us because there just weren't enough that we could use. Another option was to actually have people drive vehicles out of the area. That was identified to be problematic because some of the vehicles had been disabled in a way that would have made it difficult or impossible to drive them out.
Senator, Quebec (Mille Isles), C
Chief Bell, did you know that as a peace officer you have the power to force a towing company to tow a vehicle and if they refuse, you can charge them with obstruction?
Interim Chief, Ottawa Police Service
I can't find them guilty of obstruction. We could look to—